


When Justice Calls

by Darkangel1214



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-27 13:36:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/979551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkangel1214/pseuds/Darkangel1214
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Undertaking Oliver Queen has hung up his hood and is now running his family's business. Then he hears there's another vigilante in town and she's been looking for him. He puts on his hood to find her and comes face to face with a ghost. SPOILERS for SEASON 2</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This story is from the news I've heard surrounding season 2 of Arrow. This is my take on that.

Officer Lance looked through the window of the hospital room. He had just finished talking to patient, Nicolas Collins, Nicolas Collins whose case was dropped on a technicality. His wife was found nearly beaten to death in their kitchen by a neighbor. The weapon, a blender. The same neighbor said he heard multiple fights from the couple. Friends said she always tried to hide the bruises but she never filed any domestic abuse complaints against her husband. So he had no priors. Nick showed up the next morning nursing a hangover, said he'd been at a bar all night. His alibi was flimsy, the other bar patrons remembered seeing him, but couldn't give a time. So he was arrested, but they had no proof that he did it. His fingerprints would've been on the blender in his own home. His wife was in coma and no one could place him at the scene at the time the beating occurred. So he was out on bond, his trial pending. That was two days ago and now he was the one lying in the hospital bed nearly beaten to death.

He asked him if it was the Hood, but what the reply he got out of the man's broken jaw was a garbled "Stupid bitch!"

Which is not something you would call the Hood. The Hood hadn't been seen since the destruction of the Glades. He originally thought the Hood needed to be stopped, but without him being around crime had picked up tenfold. As much as he hated to admit this city needed him.

Felicity sat in the chair reading a book on her tablet and drinking an iced coffee. She didn't know why she bothered to show up here every day. She supposed part of her hoped that Oliver would be there suited and up and ready to fight the crime that plaque this city. But so far he hadn't. For the past five months it was just her alone in the new and improved arrow lair. The hood lair didn't have quite the ring she was looking for so she christened it the Arrow Lair. Not that it mattered if no one was using it.

Diggle told her Oliver needed time and she understood that after what had happened they all needed time to recover. It could've been much worse if they hadn't done their part; the city was still picking up the pieces of Glades. There were many casualties including Oliver's friend Tommy. She knew Oliver needed to mourn but he had hung up his suit because he blamed himself for what happened. But the city needed a hero now more than ever.

Felicity Smoak nearly dropped her coffee when her police scanner crackled to life. She had it on all the time but it was always the same news warning people to stay inside as much as possible. Since the city was half destroyed crime had gone up. The empty stores and house made everyone think it was a free for all. So she turned it down and made it search for certain key words. And now it had found one. Vigilante.

She rolled her chair closer to the screen and started typing to pull up the call. They said there was a disturbance downtown; another mugging. Three men were being taken to the hospital. They have been listed as critical condition. Could it be Oliver, was he back? She thought as she listened.

"The vic described her savior as a female; about five foot five, blonde, wearing a black leather jacket and a mask."

Okay, not Oliver then. She once again said to herself. A woman? That's interesting. She saved the report and pulled out her cell phone to call Diggle.

Diggle listened while leaning on his hands over the desk. It couldn't be Helena because she wouldn't have cared to stop a mugging and she wasn't blond. That meant it was someone else. There was another one. Where the hell did she come from? He exhaled and looked at Felicity who was sitting back in her chair waiting for him to say something. "I don't know who that is" he told her.

"I know that" she replied. "But you should tell Oliver about her, maybe he'll want to come back to find her"

"Felicity" Diggle said to her softly. "He doesn't want to come back"

"I know he keeps saying that. But I don't think that's true" she knew that wasn't true. This was what he was meant to do and the city needed him. The police were in over the heads with the crime now, they can't do it alone. "The city needs him"

"Well the city has leather clad girl now" He said to her. "She can help the city"

"We don't even know why she's doing this. We don't know if she's one of the good guys!" Felicity shouted at him. She closed her eyes and took a breath. "I'm sorry. But we don't know if can trust her. She may not even be from here. Maybe those guys pissed her off, maybe she's just passing through. Diggle, we need Oliver to come back. We need the Hood."

_____________________________________________________________________________

She sat shaking her legs and looking at the clock. She promised to leave him alone about the hood issue and she had, until now. She scheduled a meeting telling him that she needed to discuss the new network upgrade with him, because he after all was now the acting CEO of Queen Consolidated. Making him think it was work related was the only way he'd see her. And it was work related, just not this work.

She was saddened that their relationship had become strained after what happened. He was grieving a friend and he and Laurel had parted ways again unable to let go of what happed to Tommy. She wasn't too upset about that, Laurel didn't seem right for him. She didn't see the real him, so she wouldn't understand him not like she could. Not that she meant she wanted him. No, that's not what she meant. And now she was babbling to herself in her head. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She needed to pull herself together; there were more important things on the line then whether she had feeling for Oliver or not. She did. She admitted that to herself one day alone in her apartment. But not that he would go for her, he went for girls like Laurel and she wasn't anything like Laurel Lance. Felicity you need to stop talking. Great, she was talking to herself now. She really needed to fight some crime to keep her mind occupied.

"Miss Smoak, Mr. Queen will see you now" Oliver's skinny red headed model looking assistant said to her. She got up, took a deep breath and entered his office.

"Felicity" he said with a small smile. At least he's still using my first name. She thought and walked over to his desk. "So how much funding are we talking about for the upgrade?" he asked.

He was all business now dressed in a clean pressed white shirt, black tie and tailored pants. While he looked the part, and he never admit it but she could tell he was uncomfortable. This wasn't him, not anymore. She cleared her throat, held her head up high and placed her cell phone on his desk. He raised his eye brow at her. "Press play" she told him.

"You recorded what you wanted to say to me?" he was confused. "Felicity, I know we've talked much these past few months, but I still consider you a friend. You can ask me whatever you want"

"I know. But just press play and listen, okay" she told him. She didn't know how he'd react. Diggle told her to leave it alone and let the female vigilante do whatever she wanted. But now she knew what she wanted.

Oliver Queen looked at her, besides Diggle she was one of his only friends that knew the truth about him. And he knew she was upset that he stopped being the Hood. But he had put too many people at risk, his family, and his friends and now he had lost one because of who he was and what he did. He wasn't going to let that happen again.

She wouldn't stop staring at him and using her head to point to her phone. So he picked it up and pressed play. He brought the phone closer to his face as the dark video began to play, he saw a flash of blond hair and black leather, he heard grunts of pain and then thuds as the men in the video went down one by one. "What is this?" he asked her and then "Did you take this?"

"She's calling herself the Black Canary and no, I got that off of Youtube" she said to him. She smiled when she saw the light in his eyes as he watched the video. He missed it.

"The Black Canary" he repeated and looked at the paused video of a blurry masked woman. "Why are you showing this to me?"

"I thought you might want to know there's someone else out there…fighting for justice" she said to him hoping she didn't sound like an asshole.

"And you thought this would make me want to come back?" he asked her.

"Kind of" she answered honestly.

"I told you I was done" he said to her strongly, handing her back her phone. "If someone else wants to do that, let them" He put the phone down in front of her when she didn't reach out to take it. "Now if you are here to discuss business then go ahead, if not then I suggest you get back to work"

She bowed her head at the harshness of his tone. She knew he wasn't done. He survived hell to come back here; this was what he was meant to do. She grabbed her phone, scrolled through it. "There is one more thing" she told him. "This video I did take" she said and pressed play.

The shaky video caught the Black Canary stopping a mugging. She had been hiding behind a dumpster to get it. She wasn't really looking for her but she decided to walk home down Central Ave that would take her through the Glades instead of taking her usual way home. She knew it was dangerous but she had to see this new vigilante for herself. And she was in luck because she found her, but then it turned out she hadn't. The Black Canary was following her.

Oliver was angry that Felicity had gone out alone to the dangerous part of town. The whole city was warned not to go there unless you lived there. She could've gotten hurt or that could've been her that was being mugged. She couldn't expect the vigilante to just show up. But as angry and worried as he washe watched as the woman easily took down the two men. He had to admit she was good, she fought like Shado, precise, quick and deadly. Then he saw the camera drop, the video disappeared but he could hear Felicity breathing heavily. "I'm sorry" he heard her say. Then he heard another voice. "Tell the Hood I'm looking for him"

Felicity stopped the video and looked Oliver who was now inches away from her. "You shouldn't have done that" he said to her worriedly. "That was dangerous"

"It wasn't though…because she was following me" she told him. "I mean I don't know how she got my name, maybe from Lance; he knows I work for you. So you see Oliver, I'm already a part of this whether you're the Hood or not"

"She's looking for me?" he asked out loud.

"Yeah. Do you have any other ex girlfriends that have issues with you and like to dress in leather?" she said laughing nervously remembering Helena.

"Not that I know of" Oliver replied. He walked over to his desk and grabbed his jacket. "Let's go" he said and walked out of his office. He told Amber to cancel his meetings; he had an outside project that needed his attention.

Diggle caught them as they were leaving the building and drove them to Verdant. Felicity was excited to show him the new lair. She worked hard on it and couldn't wait to see his face.

She keyed in the code and they walked down the stairs. The beginning part looked like a storage room for the club. She took them father inside to the wall. She slid a hidden panel open and typed in another code and the wall slid open to reveal the real lair.

Oliver stepped through and looked all around it. Purplish blue lighting shone down on the new space, she had an entire computer network set up, a 3D printer, medical equipment and even a small bedroom with a bathroom. A tall case in the middle held his Hood outfit and another case held his bow and arrows and other weapons.

"I upgraded a bit" she told him with a proud grin.

"I can see that" Oliver said as he walked over the case holding his bow. "I don't think I want to be called the Hood anymore"

"What do you want to be called?" Diggle asked.

Oliver looked picked up an arrow and cocked his brow at him.

Tbc…


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the Undertaking Oliver Queen has hung up his hood and is now running his family's business. Then he hears there's another vigilante in town and she's been looking for him. He puts on his hood to find her and comes face to face with a ghost. SPOILERS for SEASON 2!

Oliver scanned the city from the rooftops. They city was rebuilding slowly. He saw a group of men walk into a liquor store that had escaped with minimal damage. The owner needing to still eat and pay bills had kept it open. And when people were down on their luck they turned to booze so it made sense to be open for them.

The men walked in with a purpose and he could tell it wasn't a good one. The owner was an older man around sixty; he was slightly overweight and balding. He was no match for what those men had planned. This part of town wasn't hit that badly and the men and he both knew that the cops would busy on the parts that were. Oliver leaped off the rooftop and ran to the store.

He had been looking for the Black Canary; Felicity said that she mostly seemed to go after men that had hurt women and gotten away with it but she also stopped multiple robberies and muggings in the past week. So maybe she'd show up here and he could take care of both things at the same time.

He entered the store quietly; one man held the owner at gun point making him empty the cash register. He could hear the rest of them in the store, laughing as bottles clanged together as they were stealing the liquor. The owner spotted him so he put his finger to his lips. He came up behind the man with the gun, threw his bow around his neck and pulled him backwards hard. The man was startled and dropped his gun.

The man aimed an elbow to his midsection, Oliver let go and the man spun around to face him in a boxing pose. This man thought he was a fighter, but his stance was sloppy and his hit was weak. Oliver hooked his bow on his back and prepared to fight him.

The man swung a wild punch at him that easily ducked. Oliver aimed a punch to his face and then one to his gut in a split second combination that sent him sprawling to the ground. Oliver told the owner to stay down and hidden. He walked over to the man while taking his bow out, the man moved to get up and Oliver cracked him across the face with it knocking him unconscious and continued walking to the back of the store.

He readied an arrow and sent it flying in to shelf holding cases of beer. The shelf toppled over bringing the beer crashing down around them. The four men stopped what they were doing and jumped out of the way.

They all ran at him. He got low and swung his bow around knocking one in the chin, a second in the gut. He rose up and aimed a kick to the third and palmed the face of the fourth. The two he hit fist got up and charged at him again.

He was just about done with those two when he felt a breeze sail past his ear, he looked up and saw her standing there in a throwing position, and he turned back and saw a knife lodged into the gun of one the assailants. He backed up looking at his gun confused. She then did a cartwheel and kicked him in the face as she landed while also grabbing her knife out of his gun before he fell.

There was only one guy left standing and he stared at the two of them, then he smiled. They heard more men coming from the storage room. They must've been let in through the back. Four more men opened the door and stood there with cases of vodka in their hands. They glanced at the fallen men and at their still standing comrade.

One of them threw the entire case at Oliver, He ducked as the case hit a shelf, shattering it and sending glass raining down on them. They split up three came at him and two went for her.

One of them came forward to face her in a karate stance which he probably learned from watching movies. He aimed a high kick to her face, a rookie mistake. She sidestepped aimed a sweep kick at his leg when he fell forward she spun around into a wheel kick hitting him in his face and took him down and over with a scissor kick. He was dazed and lying face down on the ground. She stood up, he didn't.

The Black Canary smiled as the second one pulled out knife and held it at her. She took out her own knife and flipped it around blade facing down and got into a fighting position. He stabbed at her clumsily and she dodged him without much effort. This guy had no idea how to use a knife as a weapon.

He charged her again, she stepped out of the way letting his momentum send him forward as he passed she elbowed him in the back. He got up with a snarl on his face and started swinging the knife wildly. She dodged his attempts but he did manage to scrape her arm with the blade. She looked down at the rip in her jacket and at the blood that started pooling through it. She looked back at him, he stood there smiling that he had gotten her. Fool she thought as she got back into position. She knew she was playing with them and she was taught not to do that. Quickly and efficiently leads to minimal mistakes.

She held her knife high knowing how he would counter her attack, she ran forward ready to stab downwards. As predicted his hand rose up to grab her wrist holding the knife to stop the attack. She let go of the knife, caught it below with her other hand. She aimed for his thigh, plunging it down missing his arteries. His hand went to his leg as he cried out in pain. She kicked him in the stomach sending him backwards and then sent a quick roundhouse kick to his face with an audible crack he fell to the floor.

Oliver just hit the last guy hard in the face because he wanted to watch her fight. Her movements were graceful and rhythmic she almost looked like she was dancing instead of fighting. When her guy went down she turned to look at him. They both heard the sirens coming towards them. He looked at the door then back at her but she was gone.

He was running down the street trying to find her when a cop car suddenly pulled in front of him. The car turned off and Detective Lance got out. Oliver noticed he was dressed in an officer's uniform.

"Where have you been?" was the first thing out of his mouth.

"Around" Oliver answered gruffly.

"Really, it doesn't look like it" he said with a just a hint of anger in his voice. He was remindied why he didn't like these vigilantes, they do whatever they want and leave whenever they want. They don't have to answer to anyone and they don't take an oath to protect the city for as long as they are able. "And now there's another one"

He thought they had come to terms with each other after the Undertaking. But he seemed to still hate vigilantes or maybe it was just him. "I'm here now" Oliver answered.

"Yeah" Quentin Lance replied shaking his head. For how long? And now she was here. He thought he had seen the last of her in Gotham. He would've thought she was too old for this, unless she had a protégée. He walked back to his car and drove away.

"I lost her" he told them pulling down his hood as he entered the lair. He waited around for little while longer to see if she'd come back. He supposed Lance showing up made her stay away.

"Not really" a female voice said from behind him. She walked into the lair clothed in black leather with a mask that was a lot more high tech then he originally thought.

"You followed me?" He asked gruffly.

"It wasn't hard" she said walking over to him, she reached around him and pulled something off his back. She held the tracker up for him to see. She watched him from the rooftop and was about to go to him when she saw who the cop was when he got out of the car. That made her pause and more determined to get to the Hood, but not here. They needed privacy.

Oliver looked at the tracker; she had gotten the drop on him three times. She was good or he had gotten rusty taking a five month break. "You said you were looking for me, I'm here. What do you want?"

She looked around the room and at the three people standing in it. She wasn't ever planning on coming back here, but now she had no choice. She turned to him. "I need your help, Ollie"

Oliver's eyes furrowed. She knew who he was and it was more than that. Only people that knew him well called him Ollie. "Who are you?" he asked.

She sighed and brought her hands to the side of her face. She released the buttons on the side and removed her mask.

Oliver stared at her wide eyed, his heart rate sped up as his brain registered the woman standing in front of him. It couldn't be her. It wasn't possible, he saw her die.

"Sara" he said in a breathy whisper.

Tbc…


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the Undertaking Oliver Queen has hung up his hood and is now running his family's business. Then he hears there's another vigilante in town and she's been looking for him. He puts on his hood to find her and comes face to face with a ghost. SPOILERS for SEASON 2!

Diggle watched Oliver stare at the woman he called Sara. The only Sara he knew that Oliver knew was Sara Lance. The Sara Lance that he said died when the Queen's Gambit went down. But the look of shock on his face told him that's who was standing before them.

She stared back at him, her face unreadable. Her hair was blonde but it was her. It was Sara, she was alive, she survived. "How?" Oliver asked softly when he regained the ability to speak.

Her eyes looked away from his. "There was a pirate ship following us" she told him her voice sounding dull and robotic "They were planning on boarding us. When we went down, they fished me out of the water"

They waited for her to say more but it appeared that was she was going to tell them. Oliver couldn't stop staring at her, his chest tightened with the guilt that was washing over him. "Pirates?" he repeated. Not wanting to think about what they could've done to her. "I looked for you, I screamed your name…I"

"That's not why I'm here" she told him locking her blue eyes onto his. "We can't change what happened, but we can change what happens now. I need you to help me kill some people"

"That's not what we do" Diggle spoke up, she just asked him to kill people as if she telling him what to pick up at the store. He knew Oliver wasn't thinking straight, the girl he thought died was alive. But whoever that girl was, he could tell the one standing in front them wasn't that girl now. They didn't need another Helena on their hands.

Felicity's eyes went back and forth between Oliver and Sara Lance. Another person has come back from the dead, well not come back from, thought was dead but apparently she was not. She looked back at her computers; the picture that suddenly appeared on the monitor shocked her back into awareness. How did that happen? Who was on her computer?

"That is Al-Owal, he's one of the leaders of group called the League of Assassins" Sara said to them when she saw the picture pop up. "He and his team have been sent to kill Laurel and my father, and then they'll come for me."

"Why is a group of assassins after you?" Diggle asked since he was the only one that willing to ask questions that needed to be asked. This woman was unnerving to watch, she moved almost robotically like Ollie did when he first met him.

Sara turned to face the man named John Diggle."Because I've been trying to dismantle his operations"

"By yourself?" Diggle asked incredulously.

"No, I have a team, that is who accessed your computer" she replied then she turned back to Oliver. "The league is a secret society of highly trained and skilled assassins. Once you become a target, your life is theirs. Only death will stop them from accomplishing their goal"

"How do you know so much about a secret organization of killers?" Diggle asked.

"Because I was one of them" she answered in the same monotone voice she'd been using since she arrived.

"You're an assassin?" Oliver asked through gritted teeth. That's not what he wanted to hear. Sara wouldn't become a killer…not unless…what had they done to her? What had he done to her? This was his fault.

"I was. I left and now they are coming after my family. I will not let them hurt them." She said with some emotion in her voice. "I can't do this alone"

"I'll help" Oliver said before Diggle could interrupt.

Sara watched from the shadows as Felicity waited outside her father's apartment. They knew he was getting off of a work soon. Oliver and Diggle were looking after Laurel, so she went with Felicity. Her father knew about the Hood but not his real identity, but knowing about him should be enough for him to believe what Felicity is going to tell him.

Felicity shivered in cold and pulled her jacket tighter. She looked out into the streets to see if she could find Sara, but there was no sign of her. She was there somewhere Felicity knew that much only because Sara said she'd be around to watch the perimeter. She gave up her search for the trained assassin and watched for Lance's car.

Quentin Lance sighed loudly when he saw Felicity Smoak standing outside his door. He was tired, he had just worked a seventeen hour shift, and he wasn't in the mood to talk with her. He wanted to go to bed. The Hood had suddenly showed up again, so he guessed that meant there could be trouble. More trouble then what they were already dealing with. He got out of his car and walked to her.

"Detective…Officer…Lance" she stuttered out. "I'm sorry I don't know what to call you" she told him awkwardly.

"We diffused an earthquake causing bomb together. You can call me Quentin" he told her. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes…actually…um." She began she didn't know how to tell him this. Yes they stopped one of the bombs from going off together, but she didn't know him that well. She supposed it would've been more awkward talking to Laurel. "I have reason to believe your life is in danger. You need to hide"

"My life is in danger?" he asked incredulously. "How do you know this?"

Felicity bit her lip, she probably should have thought of a reason for that, since she couldn't just tell him his not dead daughter told her. Sara told her not tell him. "Umm…I can't really explain that but you are in danger and you need to go into hiding. For your safety" she said strongly. At least she hoped it sounded strong.

"I'm a cop. I carry a gun. If someone comes after me I'll shoot them" he told her as he walked up the steps.

"Sir, Quentin" Felicity said following him up the steps her voice sounding desperate.

"I can take care of myself" he told her as he opened his door and walked inside. "Goodnight, Mrs. Smoak"

"Does that mean you'll go into hiding?" She asked as he shut the door. Felicity looked around for Sara, hoping she heard that. She tried but she wasn't enough to convince him of the danger he was in. She could diffuse a bomb, set up a untraceable computer network and hack into the FBI database, she was the behind the scenes girl, not the authoritative presence needed to convince a police officer that his life was in danger without telling him why.

Quentin took a shower and changed his clothes. He looked at his bed, he was beat but he was also hungry. He walked to his kitchen and opened the fridge. It was empty. He had been on his own for awhile now, but he still hadn't gotten used to stocking the fridge. He should just go to bed but he was starving. He had his hand on the door knob, then walked back into his bedroom to retrieve his gun.

He didn't really know what Felicity Smoak was going on about but he figured better be safe then sorry and better be armed than not. He locked his door and started down the street towards his car. He stopped when he felt a presence behind him. He pulled out his gun and spun around.

His heart nearly jumped in his throat as he saw the woman standing in front of him. His lungs begged for air as he just stared at her, his mind trying to process what his eyes were seeing. She didn't say anything, she just stared back at him. So he couldn't tell if she was real. Then she started walking towards him she reached him she put her hand on the gun he still held out in front of him. She pushed it down and his arm fell loosely to his side.

"Sara?" he choked out as she threw her arms around him. He hesitated for a second before gathering her in his arms. "Your mother was right" he said softly into her ear.

He was about to say more when she pulled away suddenly, grabbed him, pushed behind the car and threw him to the ground hard. Then he heard the twang of metal hitting the side of the car they were standing by. He tried to peer around to see but Sara pushed his head back down. He was confused as he felt his gun being lifted from his hand. "Stay down" She said to him hard, demanding, authoritative. Words he'd never use to describe his younger daughter's voice. "Is this loaded?" she asked. He nodded still trying to process everything.

"Is this way you want to play it?" she asked looking up in the sky and holding the gun out to the side. "You are going to treat me like one of your targets? Or are you afraid to do this face to face because you know I'd win?" she said to them and dropped his gun and kicked it away from her. "Here I'll even it up for you"

Quentin watched from behind the car. What was she doing? What was going on? He saw two men appear as if they just popped out there of thin air.

"We really don't want to this Lisa, after everything we've been through together. You were one of us." he began.

"But you broke your oath" The other finished for him.

Sara eyed the men in front of her. She felt insulted that he didn't send his best in the first wave. She supposed he was testing her like he always did. I will not fail, just like you taught me, Master.

Quentin watched in shock as his daughter stood between the two men. He heard them call her Lisa. The two men reached behind their backs and pulled out curved blades. Swords? He whispered to himself. Sara gave them both an amused smile and threw her hands down, two knifes popped out of nowhere in her hands. She said something in another language to them and they replied. It sounded Arabic. Sara never spoke any other languages where would she learn Arabic?

He watched as they circled each other, eyes locked waiting for a moment to strike. Then one of them did, he brought the blade down in an arc, Sara caught the blade between her knives and kicked her foot between his legs. He was ready for that easily backed away and smiled at her with a cocked brow saying really a groin kick? Then she got into a fighting stance, her hands in fists holding the knives blade down. The two men held their blades with two hands out in front of them.

They both came at her at the same time; she ducked and rolled away from them. She was up on her feet so quick that they were still recovering from their miss. She grabbed the nearest one and slammed her knee into his face, her elbow coming down hard on his wrists, the sword clattered to the ground. She pulled his head up and slit his throat. She gently dropped him to the ground and turned to face the second man who had just recovered.

Quentin watched on in shock and horror. The knives weren't weapons they were like extensions of her arms.

The other man saw his dead companion and had fear in his eyes as she looked at him. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and got ready to fight her. He swung his blade and she dodged back and forth. He continued attacking her with his scimitar, his momentum propelled him forward and she went the opposite way running at him and buried her knife arcing it up to his chest. She let go off her knife, spun around and landed a vicious ax kick to his back. His body smacked into the ground. She flipped him over, removed her knife and swiped her knife against his throat.

"Is this your car?" she asked as she walked back over to him. He nodded. "Give me your keys" He shakily handed them over to her. "Get in" she told him and walked around to the driver's side. She pulled the knife out of the side and threw it on the ground.

He slid in the car as she started it up. He looked back. "You killed those men" he said still in shock of what he just witnessed.

"They would've killed us…you." she said and took off, speeding down the street. She slowed down and drove normally when they got to the main road.

They drove down the dark city streets. "Your mother!" he shouted. "If they are after us, then we have to make sure she's safe!" They had been estranged for years after Sara's disappearance; they had briefly reconnected when she came with her news that Sara was alive. She was right.

"Mom's fine" Sara replied. Quentin stared at her. "She found me" she told him.

"She found you?" he asked incredulously. "How?" He knew his ex wife was a determined woman that was one of the things that he both admired and hated about her. Once she put her mind on something she wouldn't stop until it was complete. And that skill had helped her find their daughter. She never gave up hope and he had buried his. What kind of father did that?

"I didn't want to be found. That's why I sent the decoy when she found a picture of me" Sara let out a small laugh, if she only knew how her mother spent her nights when she was kid she would've done a better job. "She didn't believe it so she kept looking into it. Then she found me" There was a lot more to it than that, but that's all he'd get now. Dinah needed to be the one to tell him.

Quentin Lance could do nothing but stare straight ahead with his mouth agape. His brain reeling after all that just happened. His daughter was alive; his daughter just killed two men with skills he'd never seen before. What was this? Was he dreaming? Did he actually go home and just fall asleep? This couldn't be real. Why did they call her Lisa?

He barely noticed as they pulled into an underground garage. Sara put the car in park and stared out at the empty garage.

His cop mind was telling him there were dead bodies on the street and he knew who killed them. He turned to look at her. "Sara" he began.

He saw her wince and his eyes followed her arm down to her stomach where he saw that blood soaked through her shirt. "You're hurt!" he said his mind going straight into worried dad mode.

Tbc…


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the Undertaking Oliver Queen has hung up his hood and is now running his family's business. Then he hears there's another vigilante in town and she's been looking for him. He puts on his hood to find her and comes face to face with a ghost. SPOILERS for SEASON 2!

Oliver didn't even notice the cold as his breath came out in wisps of smoke. He stood on the street watching Laurel move around her apartment. It was late, her light was still on she was still working hard. She wanted to make a difference, fight for the little people, but she wouldn't be able to make a dent in their operations. She was the David to a Goliath with unlimited resources and power to take what they wanted without paying the consequences. She wanted to do what was right but the law was just not her side anymore. She was working for the D.A. now but that didn't stop the wealthy criminals from getting the outcome they wanted. When money speaks, justice gets lost in the noise.

He wanted to tell her sister was alive, but he promised Sara he wouldn't and he owed Sara so much more than he ever owed anyone. When he looked into her eyes the girl he was knew was gone. Like him she had become someone else.

Sara said they wouldn't go for her in public that Laurel's death would be painful and cruel. They would abduct her first, break her and they would want her there to witness it.

Oliver knocked on Laurel's door.

Sara slowly got of the car holding her hand on her wound and stumbled forward. Quentin ran after her and held onto her arm as she led him to a old freight elevator. He slid the door open when she tried to reach out for it. They got inside and he shut the cage door.

They rode up in silence. He was wondering where they were, his mind was elsewhere as she drove his car. If they were still in Starling City he'd never seen buildings like this. It was old, worn down but everything seemed to be working properly. When the elevator stopped they entered a barren apartment.

Sara just left his side and walked into the bathroom and shut the door. He heard the sink turn on.

He looked around, there was a small kitchen tucked into the corner. There was nothing on the counters, no appliances at all, not even a toaster. An island sat in the middle with two wooden stools. There were two doors one led to the bathroom, the other the bedroom. The only other thing in the room was a fold-able table with a laptop. Quentin had take a deep breath, he'd seen motel's with more furniture. He walked over and peered into her bedroom, there was a cot in the middle with a thin blanket and an alarm clock was on tv dinner table next to the bed. The way her clothes were hung and her shoes lined, her closet would've passed a Military inspection.

Sara always had her room covered with pictures, posters, concert tickets. She loved clutter and color. It pained so much to see how she was living now; this place was lonely, cold. There was nothing personal here, nothing that was hers. This was the place of someone that moved around a lot, that didn't have a place to call home. Someone that wasn't really living.

He walked over to the bathroom, knocked on the door and called her name. When she didn't reply he said it again. She didn't reply again so he got worried and placed his hand on the door knob, it twisted in his hand, so he slowly opened the door.

His eyes immediately saw the bloody towels in the sink, her ruined shirt was balled up on the counter; he looked to his daughter in a sports bra staring into the mirror holding a needle in her hand. She had stitched up her own wound.

She hadn't moved, she was just standing there staring at nothing. He didn't even know if she knew he was there, until she turned her head to look at him. His heart hurt as he looked into his little girl's haunted eyes. What happened to you? He wanted to ask but the words caught in his throat as his eyes trailed downwards where he saw the long jagged scars that went across her back, a small sunken scar on her shoulder and a serrated line near her hip. Those two scars he had seen too much of from being a cop, wounds that could only be from a bullet and a knife.

And now she taped a bandage on the stitches across her stomach.

When she turned around in the small bathroom she was right in front of him. "I need to get a shirt" she said to him softly. He moved to give her room, staggering from the shock of her many wounds and fell into the wall as she calmly walked into her bedroom.

He was still standing there when she walked out pulling a shirt down carefully over her bandage. She walked over to her kitchen. "Do you want something to drink? All I have is water"

Quentin Lance managed to nod his head while holding himself up against the wall. He shock was turning to rage that was building up inside him. He wanted to kill whoever gave his daughter those scars, he wanted them ripped apart.

But then he watched as she just set two water bottles down on the island and sit down on one of the stools like nothing happened tonight, like she hadn't been slashed with sword. He stared at her and he couldn't even see traces of the young girl he knew, the young, naive girl that wanted everything her sister had but could never get it the same way…Laurel was the perfect daughter, she studied, and she got good grades. Sara was the rebel, she wanted to push the limits, see how far the boundaries go. She was the opposite of her sister.

He wanted drink, badly. He knew he shouldn't be thinking that. That meant he needed to call his sponsor. And maybe he should and tell him hey, I think I deserve a drink because it turns out my little girl isn't dead but she's come back as someone else, someone I don't even recognize.

He walked over and sat down next to her. He watched her take a long swig of her water. She placed the bottle back on the table and stared straight ahead.

He stared at his baby girl. "What happened to you?" He asked in chocked sob.

"It's better if you don't know" she replied keeping her eyes facing forward.

Oliver stood in Laurel's apartment telling her he was worried about her latest case against Davenport Industries. All other previous lawsuits against the Davenports were dropped when the witness and the prosecutor met with freak accidents. One was killed when a tree fell on their house. Nothing could prove they were behind the deaths so they were allowed to carry on with their lives.

Laurel was trying to prove they had ties to the mob. He knew they did, but proving that was dangerous. So Laurel was in danger from them along with a League of highly trained assassins. So he wasn't entirely lying to her. "I've met with Charles and Gregory Davenport, Laurel. They are not good guys, they will do anything to protect what is they perceive as theirs. I don't want you getting hurt.

"I know my job is dangerous, Oliver" Laurel replied. "But this is what I do. I can't just walk away, we can't let them win"

"I know that" he replied. "It's just...at least let me pay for some protection for you until the trials over" Laurel stared at him, she knew he was being sincere and he meant well. But she couldn't just use his money. She was protecting people against the rich and powerful. The ones that think money will get them out of anything. She didn't want to use the same tactics to help her out.

"I can't lose anyone else" he told her softly when he saw her wanting to turn down his offer. "We can't lose anyone else"

Laurel's demeanor softened as she looked in his eyes. They were both still hurting. Oliver…I" she didn't know what to say. She was afraid for this trial, this was her biggest case yet and she knew these were dangerous men she was dealing with and she knew what happened to the others that went up against them. But she didn't want to appear scared in front of them, if she had a bodyguard that's what it would imply. But she also knew if something happened to her that would leave her father alone and she didn't want that.

"Fine" she told him with a sigh. Oliver nodded his head. He needed to do better but this was what he could do now. He'd have to talk with Sara to see what else she could think off. If these people were coming after Laurel they would do anything to get to her.

The next morning Felicity walked into the lair and saw Oliver sitting in front of the computers. He was watching a video of some kind of party. The music was loud, a longer haired Oliver sat on a couch with his arm around a young brunette, and she was smiling up at him adoringly. Her eyes alight with young love. He must have said something funny because she started giggling.

Giggling always annoyed her, people didn't giggle. That was a fake laugh to make the other person feel adored. It worked because the Oliver in the video seemed to like it.

Then the smiling young girl began dancing on a table while the wealthy crowd gathered around and threw fifties at her feet. That girl in the video was nothing like the girl she met the other day. Oliver joined her on the table, his body pressed against her ass. She threw her arms around his neck and smiled brightly into the camera. The video stopped.

"She was twenty" Oliver said with sadness in his voice. "She loved to party. Laurel wanted to stay in and study instead having fun. Sara showed up and wanted too. And I wanted too, so I showed her a good time." Oliver stared at the smiling face of Sara Lance. "Then when Laurel wanted us to move in together, I got scared. So I convinced my father to let me go with him and invited Sara. I knew she had feelings for me so she jumped at the chance to be with me and I reveled in that attention." His voice started catching with emotion. "She was scared, she knew something was wrong. I told her not to worry and then…" Oliver bowed his head and clenched his fists. He would never wish the hell he went through on anyone. He saw in her eyes the same damaged look that stared back at him in a mirror every day.

He was worried about Laurel, about Sara and his team. Sometimes he missed being on the island when all he had to worry about was staying alive. Felicity walked over to him. "It's not your fault, what happened…you didn't sabotage the yacht." She placed her hand over his balled fist. "She's alive. She survived, that has to count for something"

"She's not the same…" Oliver began.

"I never met that Oliver" she said pointing to computer Oliver's smiling face on the screen. "You both changed, you both survived, not many people would have"

"I don't know about that, we humans are resilient creatures. Don't underestimate what you are capable of." Sara said from behind them.

Felicity's heart jumped in her throat, Sara had startled her. Then she looked down to see her hand was intertwined with Oliver's. She jumped back and took her hand away. If Oliver noticed he didn't show it.

Oliver pushed the chair back and stood up. "Is your father okay?" Felicity called him and told him what happened with Quentin and that Sara had no choice but to show her dad she was alive. He wondered how Lance was doing with that information. He probably hated him even more for his part in it after seeing the Sara that had come back.

"Yes, and Laurel?" she asked.

"Diggle's keeping an eye on her. You're sure they won't attack her in public?" He asked. Laurel only agreed to have Diggle drive her to and from the places she needed to be.

"No, they don't like messy. They'll try to catch her when she's alone" Sara said to him. She didn't know how she was going to do this. They couldn't be everywhere all the time. That's why she didn't come back; she didn't let them know who she was to protect her family.

"It's not enough; we can't be with her all the time" Oliver spoke her thoughts out loud.

"I know" Sara replied. She didn't want to put her in danger either. She told her she could handle it. But now that she was here she knew she couldn't. Laurel wouldn't like it, but she wouldn't turn her away either. And they had no other options. "I know someone that can stay with her"

Laurel said good night to John Diggle, Oliver's bodyguard that was now hers. He showed up first thing in the morning ready to escort her to work. Then he drove her home from work and made sure her apartment was empty.

She saw amble around the hallway slowly, not quite leaving yet. It felt weird having someone hovering over as she got into her car; it also felt weird to get into the backseat of her own car. Overnight Oliver had also had someone install bullet proof glass on her car. Laurel waved at him again and shut the door and wondered how long he planned on staying out there. She placed her briefcase on the table then went into her kitchen to get a glass of wine.

She heard a knock on her door. She walked over to the door hoping Mr. Diggle wasn't pretending to have forgotten something so he could have an excuse to stay longer. She peered through the eye hole and sucked in her breath as she saw who was standing on the other side.

Laurel opened the door and eyed the suitcase on the ground next to her.

"Mom?"

Tbc...


End file.
